Georgi never goes anywhere without a crumpled plastic bag which contains his most treasured possession. Slowly drawing breath, the stocky builder reaches inside to take out a well travelled picture of his bubbly looking wife who was in perfect health until she encountered Bulgaria's corrupt health system.

It is nearly two years since Teodora, 30, died in a Sofia hospital after a massive blood loss while giving birth to a boy, Stilian. Tragic mistakes are made in hospitals all over the world, but Teodora's husband blames her death on a corrupt doctor who, he alleges, induced the birth so he could collect a £170 bribe.

Teodora's final hours serve as a grim illustration of endemic corruption in Bulgaria, which is giving the EU pause for thought before it allows the Balkans country to join.

Olli Rehn, Europe's enlargement commissioner, is expected to rule tomorrow that Bulgaria - and its northerly neighbour Romania - should be admitted to the EU on January 1, though he will demand greater action against corruption and organised crime.

Teodora's family hope that EU membership will improve standards in Bulgaria to ensure that their experience is not repeated.

In common with families across Bulgaria, they agreed to pay £170 to ensure that Teodora received proper medical attention. When her doctor warned that the baby was overdue and should be induced on a Sunday, the family assumed he was planning to devote even more time to Teodora. In fact, Teodora had not even started contractions, and his only interest appeared to be the money: as the only doctor on duty he would receive the full payment.

Staring blankly at the floor as he recounted the final moments of his wife's life, Georgi, 33, said: "The doctor refused Teodora's request for a caesarean because he wanted to make the birth look as natural as possible and avoid questions about why she was admitted to hospital on a Sunday."

Teodora died the following day after losing 10 litres (more than 17 pints) of blood, and the family claims that staff at the hospital closed ranks to protect their gynaecologist by reporting he had done nothing wrong.

"I would not wish this on anyone else. One day I will have to explain to my son what happened to his mother," said Georgi , who faces a two-year wait to see whether his son will be permanently damaged by the birth.

Widespread corruption in Bulgaria's public services has been a serious cause of concern for EU officials deciding whether the country is fit to join the union. A recent report called for greater efforts to make "public services more resistant towards corruption".

The report highlighted the disappointment in Brussels, where EU diplomats had assumed Bulgaria would have less difficulty in meeting the strict criteria for membership than Romania, which had been slow to embrace reform.

But Bucharest has overtaken Sofia in the past 18 months after a reforming government attacked corruption and organised crime with a zeal that has impressed Brussels. Progress has stalled in Bulgaria in the past year, mainly because the Socialists took months to form a coalition government after unseating the centre right last summer.

Efforts to stamp out corruption in public services, including the criminal justice system, and a clampdown on organised crime have suffered.

Klaus Jansen, a German investigator sent by the EU to assess Bulgaria's criminal justice system, described Sofia's efforts to tackle organised crime as a "total mess". He warned that sensitive European police information could end up in the hands of Bulgarian criminals if the country joins the EU.

Diplomats are nervous because Bulgarian criminal gangs, whose leaders speed through Sofia in Porsches and Mercedes with trademark darkened windows, appear to enjoy a charmed existence beyond the reach of the law.

Highly professional snipers carry out contract killings with apparent impunity for around £20,000 a hit in broad daylight on the streets of Sofia. Out of 100 such killings in the past 10 years, only one person has been convicted.

A host of reasons explain why Bulgaria is a haven for criminal gangs. Perched on the eastern edge of Europe by the Black Sea, it is on the main drug-smuggling route to western Europe from Afghanistan. It is also a transit country - and a country of supply - for trafficked women on their way to western Europe from Moldova, Russia and Ukraine.

As one of the Soviet Union's poorest satellite states, Bulgaria was initially slow to embrace market reforms after the collapse of communism. Just as it started to reform in the mid 1990s Bulgaria was badly hit by the international blockade imposed on the former Yugoslavia, its western neighbour.

Rumen Petkov, Bulgaria's interior minister, freely acknowledges that his country cannot be given a completely clean bill of health by Brussels.

"This is a real problem," Mr Petkov said of the low rate of convictions of contract killers. "These murders are very well planned and organised. It is quite clear to everyone that it is difficult to solve them. The people who carry them out are not amateurs, they do not practise in a village.

"I am stating this very honestly because I want Bulgaria to be welcome in the EU. This means that our partners need to know us well."

According to Mr Petkov, in the past eight months three contract killings have been solved - though only one person has been convicted - and five trafficking gangs have been broken up. A new penal code has been introduced and a campaign against corruption led to the sacking of 40 civil servants from the interior and foreign ministries in the first three months of this year.

"This is a very difficult road," Mr Petkov said of the reforms demanded by the EU. "It is very important for us to be able to show the public and to our European partners that this path is the only way." Mr Petkov looks up at a portrait of Vassil Levski, Bulgaria's national hero who led the fight against Ottoman rule, as he explains why Bulgaria should join the EU. "Bulgaria is part of Europe and has given a lot to Europe. This is where the Ottoman empire was stopped - so it did not reach the rest of Europe."

The EU will take a deep breath this week as it acknowledges that Bulgaria belongs in the European family, said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the veteran German Green MEP and former leader of the 1968 student protests in Paris, who visited last Sofia week.

"We are taking a bet - a bet that we will stabilise the region," he said.

Conditions for entry

A series of "red flags" is likely to be imposed on Bulgaria and Romania by the European commission as the price for allowing them to join the EU on January 1 2007. Brussels hopes to speed up reforms by warning the two countries they could be excluded from full EU business in flagged areas. Bulgaria is expected to face red flags in justice and home affairs after failing to do enough to tackle crime and corruption in public services. Romania may face restrictions in areas such as food safety. Olli Rehn, the European enlargement commissioner, believes they should join the EU on the original target date because a delay might provoke a backlash against reform. Their entry cannot be delayed beyond 2008.